Are you a bit confused about what constitutes a healthy diet? Well you’re certainly not alone. There are so many so-called ‘experts’ peddling their own diets or espousing a particular way of eating, that it’s bamboozling to know what to eat. So many questions abound: should you add butter to your coffee, eliminate gluten, cut out fructose, go low carb or simply drink water? Heck, it’s even confusing for us health professionals to stay on top of all the latest crazes. Nevertheless, there are some sure-fire ways to spot a dodgy diet. Here are some of the red flags you should watch out for:

1) A celebrity or someone famous with no nutritional background endorses the diet. We all have TV idols or movie-star crushes, however, just being famous on the silver screen, or even on TV, doesn’t make someone an authority on nutrition. That includes celebrity chefs and personal trainers too. You wouldn’t ask your mechanic for legal advice, right? Well the same goes for nutrition advice. Get it from a nutrition expert.

2) The diet promises to change your life in every way. In fact, washing your car is the only thing it doesn’t promise to do. Sure, losing weight and eating healthily can improve your mindset and general wellbeing, however, vacuous claims of reducing stress, anxiety, depression and general improvements in mood are baseless. Please don’t fall for the daft claims made by these charlatans.

3) There's talk of superfoods, detoxification and wellness. No food will provide you with all the nutrition you need, it’s simply a matter of getting the balance right. And the idea that we need a diet to rid ourselves of certain toxins is ridiculous! We have lungs, a liver and a lymphatic system, which do all the detoxifying we need. Wellness is a half-baked and meaningless term. We all want to feel well. Ditching whole food groups and following a highly restrictive diet will not do anything to boost your happiness.

4) You're told to exclude dairy, grains, fruit, fructose and your favourite foods. These foods are somehow considered “toxic” or harmful. Yet the evidence strongly shows that including foods from all the five food groups in one’s diet promotes health and well-being. Alarm bells should be ringing if you’re told to forego the good stuff.

5) You're asked to buy how-to-guides or recipe books. How else will the creator of the diet make some moolah? They don’t care about your health and well-being, they’re simply in it for the health of their own hip pocket.

6) There are supplement pills to pop. See points 3 and 5.

7) There are testimonials. Everybody loves seeing ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. However, a population sample of one is hardly conclusive. Fad diets may help to reduce one’s weight in the short term, but are they successful in the long term? Studies show that those who go on crash diets end up bouncing back above their original weight when they return to their previous eating habits. Don’t be fooled!

8) You'll lose heaps of weight and gain vitality or something like that. See above points.

9) There are pretty girls promoting it. See point 1.

10) There's a time limit e.g. a 12-week challenge. A ‘diet’ or a way of eating should be for life. It’s all well and good sticking to a diet for a short period of time, however, the key is to ensure that any dietary changes you make will be long-term. Perhaps framing foods in the context of “sometimes” and “everyday” will go some way to improving our health outcomes, not to mention our relationship with food.

Hi Joel,
I can guess, but just want to hear your thoughts on ketogenic diets, specifically the Ultra Lite system. I have a good friend who is now a "consultant" after spending $6500 on training, because it was cheaper than going to Uni to study dietetics and she now doesn't believe in what "they" teach anymore ie the healthy food pyramid. I have seen her have success and being a health professional ( by that I mean university educated, registered etc) can't help but be skeptical, but she has lost weight and reasonably quickly. I understand some of the science behind meridian and everything she says makes sense, but i am not sure. Any thoughts/advice?

Reply

Kylie Vogt

28/9/2015 08:06:54 pm

Apologies, auto correct-ketosis not meridian!

Reply

Joel

1/10/2015 04:09:51 pm

Hi Kylie,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Ketosis diets work on a heavy restriction of carbohydrates. This causes the body and brain to use alternative fuel sources. There may be some encouraging short-term results, however, it has some nasty side effects too e.g. bad breath, moodiness and can impair one's ability to exercise. If one excludes carbohydrates from their diet they run the risk of nutrient deficiencies including fibre and folate. There is some evidence to show that ketosis diets work for children with extreme epilepsy, however there is insufficient evidence to support this diet for the rest of the population. I'd certainly be advising you to steer clear of it.